Titan

In his print Titan, William Gropper used thick, dark outlines to depict a bald, wizened, cigar-chomping, jaw-jutting, big-bellied man, a modern titan of industry rather than ancient mythology's personification of elemental physical power. Silhouetted in profile against a blank background, he leans back in his chair (with dots indicating the studded edges of its upholstery) and rests his crossed legs on a desk surface evoked by a mere pair of perpendicular lines. Gropper shaded the man's face and suit with fine-lined hatching. His reclining pose and clenched eyes indicate that he has dozed off, yet his taut grip on his lapel suggests that he could easily snap back into alert control. No further props are required to convey the power with which this man presides in his elite milieu. The artist's inclusion of a few telling details, such as the jagged scar on the man's temple and his pointed nose, give his face a somewhat grim appearance that commands attention and exudes power. In Titan and Top Man (RF 2004.18), Gropper caricatured businessmen in a sharply critical way.

Gropper made Titan during an intense period of printmaking in the mid-1960s. After creating the image on the plate, he printed the impressions in collaboration with master printer Emiliano Sorini (1932-1999) (whose “ES" chop mark appears on this one) at the latter's New York City print workshop. This impression is Sorini's printer's proof, an impression separate from the edition of one hundred published by Associated American Artists, a New York gallery.

Sorini, Emiliano. Gropper - Catalogue Raisonné of the Etchings. San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1998. No. 113, p. 113.